Ohio $1M winner wants to provide toilet paper

Associated Press

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HAMILTON, Ohio – One of Ohio’s newest million-dollar lottery winners has toilet paper on her mind as she makes plans to give some money to help others.

Regina Jackson says memories are fresh of the aid received when she was out of work for seven months after being laid off in 2008. She got a lot of help from Reach Out Lakota, a nonprofit organization that helps provide food, clothing and other necessities to the needy in Butler County in southwest Ohio.

She says the organization provided badly needed food to her and her mother, now 81, until she was called back to her customer service job.

“If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have been eating,” Jackson, 60, of Hamilton, said. “My mother, who I live with, had enough to cover the rent, the gas, the electric, the phone, but not the food.”

They got toilet paper there, too, but only two rolls a month along with a roll of paper towels.

Jackson told the Cincinnati Enquirer that she would like to donate a whole truckload of toilet paper to Reach Out Lakota but will give money instead. She also plans to donate to Faith Community United Methodist Church in West Chester, which also helped her and her mother.

“We are very appreciative for the help we received,” said Doris Dromboski, her mother. “Why wouldn’t we want to give back? It is just the right thing to do, so they can provide food for someone else in need.”

Jackson also plans to make donations to animal welfare groups.

She expects to receive $710,000 after taxes. She was one of four winners of the New Year’s Raffle in Ohio, after matching all six numbers with a computer-generated pick.

She bought the ticket at a Meijer retail store and was stunned when a cashier told her how much it had won for her.

“I am still in shock,” she said.

Said her mother: “I had been praying for some extra money, but I wasn’t praying for that much.”